ABOUT 85 people were killed and over 90 injured in Maiduguri following Boko Haram's ruthless bomb blast on Sunday which has been its deadliest since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office on May 29.
In what security authorities are describing as a last desperate throw of the dice, Boko Haram carried out a series of coordinated bomb blast in the Borno State capital on Sunday. The attacks on Sunday night in the Ajilari Cross area and nearby Gomari, near the city’s airport, killed and maimed worshippers at a mosque, bystanders and football fans watching a televised match.
According to the Nigerian Army and rescuers, the explosions were caused by homemade devices but one local and the police said a female suicide bomber also blew herself up. Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded in 2002, has been the epicentre of the six-year-old insurgency and repeatedly attacked since President Buhari assumed office.
Some 26 people were killed in a suicide attack on a Maiduguri mosque on May 30, while another attack on a cattle market three days later killed 13. Since President Buhari's inauguration on May 29, at least 1,100 people have been killed, with the majority of the attacks being in Borno State.
Local resident Sabo Ahmed, said: “I can assure you that no fewer than 85 people died. The figure given by the police is just the number of people taken to hospital as many more died and were just taken away by their loved ones.”
He added that 15 more bodies had been pulled from the rubble of the football match viewing centre and that four were his brothers aged between 19 to 24. Alhaji Jidda, a resident of the Binta Sugar neighbourhood, said more than 35 people were killed at the mosque, which is thought to have been hit by a female suicide bomber.
Alhaji Jidda added: “Apart from the imam and a few people, all the rest died instantly at the mosque because of the impact of the blast. From the figures we gathered, more than 85 people died in total.”
Chief of army staff Lt General Tukur Buratai, described the attacks as unfortunate but said it indicated the group’s methods. Of late, the Nigerian he military has claimed the rebels were in disarray, having apparently lost territory and seen their camps destroyed in recent months but Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau denied the group was a spent force, describing the military claims as lies in an audio recording published via social media on Saturday.
Apart from suicide and bomb attacks on markets, bus stations and mosques, the insurgents have also carried out deadly cross-border raids in neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic. All three countries have been assisting Nigeria in the counter-insurgency and a new 8,700-strong regional force comprising all four countries plus Benin Republic is set to be deployed against the jihadists.
Comments
Post a Comment